When unscrewing the plug to check the level of fluid in our Hurth ZF transmission we discovered that the dip stick was no longer attached to the plug. Long story short- it took several hours to disassemble and get the transmission out of the engine room so we could try to locate it inside the transmission (as per instructions from a ZF tranmission company ). It was finally located but could not be removed because it was in a horse- shoe shape and we could not get it out of the small hole. We do not know when or how it got bent as we did not have prior problems with the tranimission. The company said the dipstick is "pressed" into the plug and when questioned about it falling out they commented "it sometimes happens"!!!! We had to replace the tranmission.
***** An expensive lesson learned- if you have a dip stick that is not screwed into the plug - leave it out of the tranmission until it is time to check the fluid level and secure the access hole with a separate plug.
***** An expensive lesson learned- if you have a dip stick that is not screwed into the plug - leave it out of the tranmission until it is time to check the fluid level and secure the access hole with a separate plug.
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